The long-running soap opera Neighbours has been slammed by fans after airing an 'appalling' storyline seemingly inspired by Brisbane's infamous 'poo jogger'.

In a recent episode, long-time Ramsay Street resident Dr Karl - played by Alan Fletcher - feels queasy while riding his bicycle and has to stop to relieve himself.

Unfortunately, there are no public toilets nearby so he is forced to release his bowels in the bushes. 

This bizarre plot has the other characters working hard to track down the culprit, not realising it is their close friend and trusted medical professional.

A trailer recently shared to social media once again showed Karl relieving himself in the open - and fans immediately called the show out for going too far in its attempt to come up with fresh storylines. 

'Could Karl really be the serial pooper?' the account wrote next to the clip.

The storyline appears to be inspired by the real-life case of Brisbane business executive Andrew Macintosh, aka 'poo jogger', who in 2018 resigned from his job after it was discovered he had been repeatedly defecating outside a unit block.

The trailer quickly whipped Neighbours fans into a frenzy, many of whom took to the comment section to call the program out.

'This storyline stinks!' one fan sniped and a second person added: 'Hate this. Obviously his high fibre diet is having laxative effects.'

'Karl has become a caricature lately. This is a new low for the writers,' a third person chipped in and another added: 'What a s**t storyline.' 

It comes after the beleaguered soap opera was saved by Amazon Prime in November 2022, several months after it was initially axed. 

Unfortunately, the reboot of Neighbours turned out to be a huge flop for Channel 10.

The first episode of the show drew in a total TV audience of just 244,000 and a mere 122,000 fans in the five metro centres tuned in.

Meanwhile, another 68,000 fans saw the debut episode on catch-up platforms including 10Play, and 10Peach, while another 54,000 viewers watched the show in regional areas, making a total national audience of 174,000.

Its total TV audience of 244,000 comes after what was supposed to be the show's grand finale in July 2022 pulled in a whopping 1.09million viewers.